A Drop of Corruption

Din finds the elaborate stonework of the High City impressive. The messenger who greets them suspiciously demands to know if they are armed. When they confirm they aren’t, they’re led into the throne room to meet the prince. Prince Carmak, who strikes Din as unimpressive, is joined by Jari Pavitar and Satrap Darhi. (They later learn that Carmak is secretly Pyktis in disguise, and that he has been conspiring with Darhi to destroy the marrow, thus forcing the Empire to continue paying Yarrow to use the Shroud.) Pavitar and Darhi compete for the prince’s ear. Prince Carmak reports that Kardas has also fallen ill from the poison that killed the king. He seems uncertain in his role, and Din assumes that this is because the prince never intended to rule, given that the Empire is set to take control of Yarrow imminently.

Ana clarifies that she is not present to speak on behalf of the Empire in negotiations; if proven innocent, Kardas will do so. If Kardas is proven guilty, she promises not to interfere with Yarrow’s punishment. Carmak invites Ana into the room where his father’s body is being held, despite Pavitar and Darhi’s protests that an imperial should not be permitted to see such a sacred space. As Din heads off with Ana, Darhi stops him to offer “additional service” if needed, claiming his interests are aligned with those of the Empire.

The late king’s body reveals that he was very elderly when he died. When alone with Ana, Din, and Malo, Carmak reveals his intense distress. He wants the true murderer revealed immediately; his nobles clamor for Kardas to be killed by day’s end. Carmak confides that he regrets his father’s death not due to affection, but because Carmak never wished to rule.

Carmak recounts the events preceding the poisoning. The diplomatic team had been assembled for tea. The group included Kardas, Signum Gorthaus, Darhi, Pavitar, and the king. The king was served three cups of tea, two by Carmak, one by Kardas. During the third, he cried out in pain. The cup was the same for each serving, but was briefly left alone near the teapot. The moment the king’s death was confirmed, Pavitar insisted Kardas was the killer. Several hours later, Kardas also collapsed. In the morning, Ana’s message arrived, which Carmak intercepted.

Carmak denies working with the smuggles or knowing how an oathcoin came to be in the shrine. Darhi possesses more such coins than anyone else. Ana and Din are both surprised when Carmak explains that past Yarrow kings married women from the Empire despite their anti-Imperial attitudes; Carmak and Darhi are both part Rathras, the ethnic group to which Pyktis belongs. (This foreshadows the reveal that Carmak and Pyktis are twins.) Carmak does not think “an imperial” could know of this history, however. (This foreshadows Pyktis’s Yarrow heritage.)

The Treasury delegation is happy to see the Iudex agents, who they believe will grant their freedom. Malo treats Kardas with worms that been augmented with anti-inflammatory properties, then promises he will recover imminently. Gorthaus is extremely relieved.

Ana questions Gorthaus, an engraver. Din notes that Gorthaus is especially fastidious, even more so than most engravers, who are generally quite neat. He ascribes this to a desire for control. Gorthaus confirms that everyone in the room except her approached the king’s cup while it was sitting unobserved. The king collapsed, and the Treasury delegation was sequestered. Hours later, Carmak visited; Kardas collapsed shortly afterward, despite not eating or drinking anything. Gorthaus opines that one of Carmak’s enemies might have tried to kill Carmak and accidentally poisoned Kardas. She does not believe Pavitar or Darhi likely culprits, as they are loyal to the throne.

Ana feels overwhelmed by her new surroundings. She believes Gorthaus honest. She is unsure what to make of Darhi’s offer to Din about “additional service”: It may be a sign of villainy, or it may be a sign of his political aspirations. Ana directs Din to interview Pavitar, hoping that Pavitar’s evident dislike of Din will make him slip up.

Pavitar’s story matches that of Carmak and Gorthaus. He accused Kardas, he reports, because it was “imperial magics” that killed the smugglers, whom he disdains. He insists that their deaths matter because, despite their criminality, they were “still Yarrow,” and so an imperial killing them—rather than the king himself—treads up on the king’s power. Pavitar insists that no Yarrow person would have harmed the king, as it would be sacrilege since the king represents Yarrow ancestry and the Yarrow worship their ancestors. Pavitar insists the king was in good health and spirits prior to his death, though Malo indicates secretly to Din that this is a lie.

Pavitar hates the negotiations; he believes the Empire tricked the king’s ancestor into signing the deal. Pavitar loathes Darhi, but denies ever having seen him associate with smugglers or give on an oathcoin. He insists that no imperial citizen has ever before been admitted to the reliquary. When Din asks if Pavitar has seen “anything strange,” Pavitar reports that his dogs recently died and that poison was suspected in their deaths. (Ana later realizes that Pyktis poisoned Pavitar’s dogs so they would not detect that he smelled different from Carmak, whose identity he had assumed.) He blames the dogs’ deaths on the Shroud, which he calls “a blight upon this world” (287). Malo and Ana do not believe that this hatred indicates any plans to destroy the Shroud.

Darhi, in his interview, argues for Kardas’s innocence. He believes someone is trying to sow dissent to disrupt the negotiations. Darhi claims the naukari, the ancestral servants, were the king’s only enemies; he does not think Pavitar or the prince likely culprits. Darhi also praises the king’s good health but, when pressed, admits that the elderly king had lapses in memory. Darhi dislikes that Carmak shared the secret history with Yarrow kings and imperial women. He notes that the women did not suffer for their relationships, except for the increased risk of pregnancy complications due to the prevalence of multiple births in the Yarrow royal line. The king had a twin who died as a child. He denies that these multiple births caused competition for the throne, as the Yarrow’s ancestor worship means they accept the king’s chosen successor without question. (This proves ironic foreshadowing, as Pyktis kills his twin brother to steal the throne.) Darhi says the delegation discussed taxes, which Malo marks as a lie.

Ana asks Din to confirm that, when looking out from Sujedo’s rooms, he could see the coming and going of ships from the Apoth factories; Din could. Ana requests another meeting with Gorthaus. She explains that Kardas’s habit of biting his thumb while anxious led him to ingest trace amounts of poison, which were on the king’s cup and then his hands. Ana accuses Gorthaus of knowing who poisoned the cup as she, Ana contends, has been double-crossing the Empire and Yarrow for two years.

Ana explains her reasoning. Two years prior, the smugglers outside Yarrowdale increased their coordination by collaborating with Pyktis. Pyktis, though an augur, needed some information from which to make his deductions; he blackmailed Gorthaus, an engraver, to watch the boats, then pass on everything she’d seen to a liaison at court. This is why the smugglers never acted on the first week of the month, as this was when the liaison met Gorthaus. Before Gorthaus can name the liaison, however, she collapses. Malo finds a pinprick where Gorthaus was recently poisoned with kerel. Ana urges haste, as this means the poisoner was recently present.

Malo tries to heal Gorthaus, to no avail, while the guards search the king’s hall. The captain of the guard eventually reports that someone bumped into Gorthaus on the way to meet with Ana, but nobody got a clear look at him. Malo, Din, and Ana rejoin Carmak, Darhi, and Pavitar. The identity of all the regular guards has been confirmed; the servants are undergoing the same process, to check whether the poisoner hides among them. The attack on Gorthaus absolves Kardas, who was bedridden when she was poisoned. Carmak refuses to let the wardens search the High City, as this would cause significant unrest among the anti-imperialists in the city.

Ana, Din, and Malo return to New Town. Din reports that Darhi is lying about the delegation’s work. Ana begins twitching and speaking in a “queer, deep voice” (307). She reports a case she once worked in which three children were killed by an unknown murderer. When a fourth was killed and his body treated more carefully, Ana deduced that there was a connection between killer and victim and identified the boy’s uncle. She contends that Pyktis’s increased secrecy while killing the king—and his increased risk in emerging to kill Gorthaus—means that he had a personal relationship with the late king. Ana directs Malo and Din to review Gorthaus’s possessions for clues.

Malo and Din find gold hidden beneath a loose stone in Gorthaus’s rooms. Kardas wakes. He is horrified by the report of Gorthaus’s misdeeds, of which he knew nothing. He cannot point the finger at anyone who spent unusual amounts of time with Gorthaus.

Ana accuses Kardas of having a secret agenda with his negotiations, which she posits concern the marrow. Because the Empire no longer benefitted from acquiring Yarrow, they intended to abandon their plans to adopt the country. Malo is horrified, seeing this as a broken promise; Kardas counters that the Yarrow do not want the Empire’s presence. Malo is furious on behalf of the naukari, who were promised freedom under imperial rule. Darhi knows about the plan, but thinks the Empire intends to delay, not entirely withdraw. Thelenai argues that this plan only works if the marrow is secure—something that, with Pyktis’s interference, is no longer certain. Thelenai reports that the Apoths intend to relocate the marrow soon, via ocean voyage to avoid Pyktis’s threat in the canals. This makes their quest even more urgent.

Ana and Din speak privately with Thelenai in her office. Ana argues that, after faking his death on the Shroud, Pyktis went to the High City. Ana contends that the disaster on the Shroud was meant to destroy the entire Shroud but failed. Pyktis’s work since has been in pursuit of another attempt. She believes that as his plan comes to a close, he is killing his allies so they cannot betray him. For more information, she proposes that Din go to the Shroud to speak to the other augurs and inspect the marrow.

Din dislikes this idea, even with the promise of soothing grafts to help him remain calm while in the Shroud. He commiserates about feeling doomed with Malo, who, despite serving in the Khanum military, is not a citizen of the Empire. If the Empire leaves Yarrow, she will be left behind. She confides that she was once a naukari, and that she was freed when a naukari boy used an oathcoin to ask for all the children in the household to be freed, even though he knew he would be killed for the request. She laments that Yarrow clings to injustice in the name of tradition. Din offers to help Malo transfer to the Iudex so she can serve in the Empire; Malo is not confident he can achieve this, but allows him to try.

Din is taken to a secure chamber to prepare for his trip to the Shroud. Thelenai has identified two augurs who knew Pyktis and arranged an interview. She warns Din against giving the augurs any information about the outside world, as they will obsess over it instead of studying the titans as they have been tasked to do. She gives Din an emotional suppressor to help him avoid reacting to the augurs. She worries that they will not find Pyktis in time, and Ana reminds her of her complicity in setting the crimes in motion.

Din fusses with the blotley welt, which still bothers him, something Ana finds fascinating. He confides his worry over Malo, the wardens, and the naukari. Ana teases him that he is really thinking of his own potential future in the Legion. He admits that he cannot afford to transfer, due to the risk increase on his father’s loans. Ana reveals that she knows about the lending group that has been harassing Din and increasing his payments. She also knows about Captain Kephus Strovi, Din’s love interest in The Tainted Cup. Din denies that Strovi is his true motivation for wanting to join the Legion; he desires the honor of defending the Empire and feels that his current service is insufficient. Ana argues that the work of the Iudex is to keep corruption in check, something that, in turn, keeps the Empire capable of fighting of leviathans, as the Legions do. She mysteriously predicts that Din will “soon receive two revelations […] One very obvious, and one very secret” and that these will convince him to remain with the Iudex (334). (At the end of the novel, she reveals that she is part of the ancient Khanum race. Din also realizes that he believes in the Iudex’s project of justice.)